The Loner
Prologue A pretty golden she-cat sat on a white, solid fence. The paint was chipping around her paws, and her claws dug into the tiny holes that had been carved long ago by Woodpeckers, who left long. Everyone had left. Every bird, every Kittypet, every Twoleg, nothing but the tiny beetles and this strange, golden she-cat. Behind the she-cat was a once beautiful garden. It used to be full of pretty yellow and red flowers with ferns and herbs on the rims and various vegtables in the middle. However, since the Twolegs hadn't been there to take care of it, it was overgrown and one white rflower plant even crawled up and weaved through the fence up to where the she-cat sat. In short, it was a ghost town. Long ago everyone had left, leaving it the home of many rogues and loners. The golden she-cat reflected on all of this, and once again wondered what could have happened to make them leave. Of course, it had happened before she had lived there. She had only moved there recently with her mate because they would be safe from Twolegs and warring cats. The she-cat sighed and turned, walking sideways along the fence. She made her way carefully over to a cherry tree, which was full of spring blossoms. She bunched her muscles and leaped, landing gracefully on a thin branch that swayed under her wieght. She leaped from branch to branch, making her way towards a hollow halfway up the skinny tree. She poked her head into the hollow and heard a cry. She slipped inside and padded over to her three kits, squealing with excitment that their mother had returned. She pressed her face into the nest and purred as the kits pounced at her and pawed at her whiskers. "Now, now, kits." she meowed, curling her tail around the three kits, "Calm yourselves. There's plenty of time to play tomorrow when your father comes." "Awwww!" a she-cat whined, "But I wanna play now!" "Quiet, Hush."(Note: her name is Hush, I just placed that in the wrong statement.) the golden she-cat meowed, poking the tiny kit with her nose. "I'm going to go out again, I might be able to find some yummy berries for you guys to munch on." She pushed the kits into the nest then slipped out the hole again. Many minutes passed, and the kits sat and waited for their mother. The oldest, a dark gray tom with thin, black stripes stepped forward and poked his head out. "She's taking forever!" he whined. "Maybe we should go out and look for her?" the youngest, a lighter gray she-cat with white spots suggested. "Okay, let's go!" the middle one, a golden tabby she-cat that looked like her mother, mewed. But the tom blocked her path. "Hush, you know mommy would yell at us!" he mewed, pushing her backwards. "I wanna go!" she pouted. "You don't have to go alone." came a sudden voice. They all jumped, and a tortiseshell tom poked his head into the hollow. "I can take you." "Who are you?" Hush asked. "A friend." the tom mewed, then continued, "You are Dancer's kits, right?" "Yes." the tom kit mewed, "what of it?" "Well, I wanna take you guys for a walk. Want to see your momma or not?" he asked. "Yes!" Hush and her little sister jumped out of the hole after the tom, their brother following grudingly. Chapter 1:Welcome to WaterClan A little she-cat woke up in a clearing. She blinked in surprise. The last thing she remembered was sitting in her nest with her littermates. What were their names again? She looked around. The clearing was flooded with moonlight, making the dark green grass around her silvery. The clearing was large, about two tree-lengths length and width. The trees appeared to be oaks with one or two maple trees. None with pink blossoms on them. Why am I worried about pink blossoms? the she-cat wondered. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, and stood. She was beside a tree-stump that was smack-dab right in the middle of the clearing. The she-cat examined the stump, and found that there were tiny claw marks carved into it. She was screeching. Something had her taila nd was pulling her backwards. She saw her littermates bloody and mangled on the edge of the clearing, barely breathing. The unknown cat on her tail dragged her back with all his might. She saw her tiny claws making indents on the stump... The she-cat blinked as the memory came out of nowhere. What had happened? Why couldn't she remember anything? We'll cross that log when it falls in the stream. the she-cat thought, For now, I need food and water. I need to find a body of water of some sort. She padded along through the grass. It was thick, and was ahrd for her shrot legs to get through without jumping in between steps. As she made her way out of the clearing, she tripped over a twig. "Ow!" she hissed with annoyance. She sat up and rubbed her head with a paw. She licked the pad of her paw and rubbed her ear, which had hurt when hitting the ground... for some reason. As she brought the paw back down for another lick, she saw blood on it. Blood? She brought her paw back to her ear and felt a small, half-healed cut in its tip. How many more scars did she have? What had happened?! She began to panic. She had no idea where her mother was, what had happened, how old she was, or even her name! What was going on? She raced around in circles, squealing, not caring that she kept tripping over her own feet in the thick grass. "Little loner, what's wrong?" the she-cat froze. She slowly turned around and saw a misty-gray she-cat standing behind her. when the mysterious cat got a good look at the panicing she-cat, she exclaimed, "My StarClan! What happened to you?" The she-cat blinked several times, then couldn't hold back tears any longer. She burst out, tears pouring from her eyes, "I don't know what happened!" The newcomer sat and thought for several moments, then padded over to the crying loner. She sat beside her and curled her tail around her shoulders. "Come on, loner. Featherfern'll take care of you. You look about my age- how old are you?" "I don't know." the loner muttered. Not worrying if this cat could be leading her into a trap- what choice did she have?- she followed her into the trees. They walked along a path surrounded by brambles, the whole time the strange misty she-cat was talking. "I belong to WaterClan. I was on a patrol, but I went off on my own- Orangescale won't mind. I heard you crying out in fear so I thought I'd help, didn't even know I'd crossed the border! Here we are, now we're in WaterClan territory!" They crossed into a clearing, then slipped into more forest. "It may seem hard for a loner to even notice us in here, we're so well hidden. Those dumb FireClan and EarthClan cats couldn't find our camp if it was right in front of their nose! Haha!" "I just wanna go home." the loner murmured, but the misty cat didn't hear her. "We're almost to camp!" the rambling gray she-cat annonced. The loner thought she could hear water rushing nearby. The two cats soon came out of the trees and found that they were on the banks of a river. The gray cat started to jump in the water, then realized that the hurt loner couldn't swim in her condition. "Um... there's a log over there we can cross." she meowed. She led the loner over to a slimy, slippery log and helped her up. Digging her tiny claws in so as not to fall into the cold waters below, the loner made her way slwoly towards an island in the river. The noise of a snoring cat caught her attention, She inched closer along to log until she dropped onto the island. Behind her, the misty she-cat stopped her. "What's your name anyway?" she asked the loner. "Um...?" the loner thought for a moment. Behind the loner, a gray tom with black stripes was shouting, "Hush! Help me!"., but she couldn't move. She needed to help the tom! The loner shook, then blinked her eyes open to see the gray she-cat looking at her worriedly "You okay?" she asked. "I-I'm fine." the loner sighed, "and I think my name's Hush." "Cool name." the misty cat smiled, "I'm Streampaw." "Nice." Hush meowed. They walked ahead. and, after slipping through a bush, Hush gasped. They were in a big camp, cats sleeping all around with only a few cats awake. It was beautiful, leaves floating in the breeze and a pile of fresh-kill in the middle, scales of fish shining in the moonlight. "Welcome," Streampaw meowed, sweeping around the camp with her tail, "to WaterClan." Chapter 2: A Medicine Cat and a Deputy "Who is this, Streampaw?" Streampaw jumped as a ginger she-cat slipped out of a den and strode over to them. This she-cat was a dark, tiger-ish ginger with black tabby stripes and only half a tail. "Oh!" Streampaw sat before the tall she-cat, leaning down in a bow and flattening her ears in fright, "I-I-I..." "Speak, Streampaw." the she-cat gave the apprentice a glare. "This is Hush." Streampaw whispered, "I found her just outside our territory. She says she doesn't remember anything, and couldn't answer my questions. She was all cut up, so I thought I'd bring her home. She... she seemed so helpless." "You shouldn't bring random loners home, Streampaw." the she-cat shook her head, then padded over to Hush. "Hello, darling. I'm Tigerlily, deputy of WaterClan." she meowed in a soft, kind voice, "You look all torn up. Are you sure you have no idea what happened?" Hush nodded, flicking her bloody ear as if to say, "This hurts," without actually opening her mouth. She was frightened, but calmed herslef by thinking, What else can I do? It does no good to panic when it's my only option. "Well, come on, Hush." Tigerlily meowed, leading the loner onward towards a den, "Featherfern can take care of you." The den was made off propped sticks, stuck in the soft ground and tied at the top with vines. Covering the sticks was several, big, oily-looking leaves that would deflect rain. From inside came a strong scent of herbs. Tigerlily and Hush slipped into the den to find Feathfern, a pale ginger tom with white paws, snoozing in a nest in the far corner. Tigerlily rolle dher eyes and padded over to him. She placed her forepaws on his sides and rolled him around violently, rousing him. "What do you want, Tigerlily?" he mumbled, blinking to try and clear blurry sleep from his eyes. "Poor Hush here is in bad shape, I need you to heal her." Tigerlily flicked her tail to Hush, sitting beside th entrance. If Hush could have been outside her body at that moment, she would have been surprised at how the moonlight reflected off of her golden tabby fur. "Hush? A loner?" Featherfern asked, confused as he looked at the injured loner. "What?" "I'll explain all later." the ginger tbaby she-cat stomped her paw on the ground, "All you need to know for now is she's injured, needs our help, and that she can't remember what happened to her at all. She might have hit her head badly. I heard of one cat who hit his head and went blind- maybe you should make sure that doesn't happen to her." then she turned and slipped out of the den, leaving Hush and Featherfern alone. "You don't remember a thing?" he asked her, padding over to a pile of herbs. "No, not really." Hush squeakedd, "I-I just get flashbacks." "Are they scary?" he asked, looking at her with a bundle of herbs in his mouth, "Are they of a battle of some kind?" "Sorta." Hush went on to explain her flashbacks while the medicine cat treated her wounds. When he finished, Hush stretched out her forelegs, then padded around to make sure her injuried felt better. "I feel much better, thank you." Featherfern smiled. "You should be going to sleep, young one. I have a nest right here you can use." He gestured towardsa mossy nest with his tail, and Hush raced over to it, eager to get soem sleep and ignore the crazy day she'd had. Chapter 3: A New Name A huge tom loomed over Hush. "come on, little ones." he meowed, "We must hurry on. you need to meet the fifth." "Fifth what?" Hush asked. The tom just walked on. "don't ask questions, little one." He mewed. ''A tom, about as old as Hush was, padded beside her. "Sis, I have a bad feeling about this guy. We should go back home and wait for Dancer." '' Hush blinked her eyes open to see Streampaw beside her. "Hello, Hush!" Streampaw hopped up and down in excitement now that the Loner was awake. "Hey, Streampaw." Hush meowed sleepily, standing up in her mossy nest. "I was having the strangest dream." "Well, Tigerlily went to talk with Splatterstar!" Streampaw lowered her voice to an excited whisper, "Let's go spy on them!" "Who's Splatterstar?" Hush asked. "She's the leader of the whole clan!" Streampaw meowed, padding towards the exit and into camp with Hush following her. The camp was very big. Most of the dens were made like the Medicine Den was- sticks propped together and tied at the top with brambles. Although, the most hidden den was one the smelled of milk and new kits. It was made of sticks propped together, then at the top was a big peice of bark, so the entire den was cube-shaped. On each side of the sticks, large, oily leaves were woven through the walls and pebbles were placed on each side, so the sticks wouldn't fall in. Then, to make the whole thing look natural, a bush was planted over it, hiding it from view. Unless you knew exactly what it was and were looking for it, you couldn't see a thing. The Warriors' Den and the Apprentices' Den were side-by-side. The floors were made of pebbles, and overhanging branches from a tree nearby provided shelter from the rain. The walls were made of long slabs of wood, and the entrance was hidden by a pile of leaves. The Leader's Den was a small, hollow log with sand as the floor and brambles hanging over each side. It was hanging off the island and the opposite side opened up into water. This was supposed to help Splatterstar exit the lsland quickly if there was a abttle patrol coming for the camp. But this also helped Streampaw find the perfect place to spy on the leader when she was having a very important debate with someone in her den. "You see," Streampaw explained in a hushed voice while she crept around the other side of the log and into the water, "I found this place when I was a kit. Over there is a pile of sand on the log, see? You climb up this side." she clawed her way up the log in a place where it was rotting, "No cat inside would hear you. then you hop onto that pile of sand, and it will muffle the sound of your paw steps." She hopped into the pile of sand, not making a sound, " Then you need to crouch down, behind this knot in the wood so nobody can see you from camp. And right here is a hole. I covered it with brambles so nobody from inside could see us, but if you put your ear to it, you can hear them, clear as day." Hush followed Streampaw, and the two crouched behind the knot in the wood and listened. Will write more Category:Fanfiction Category:Rowanfall's Fanfiction